Amazing series of pictures of older people's real achievements in sporting activities

 

An amazing series of pictures showing older people who have renewed their lives taking up sporting activities that we associate mainly with younger people.

 

Link to HuffPost photoarticle 

Firefighters see the risks in older people's homes: do we use their local kowledge in social care?

A local newspaper report of the risks firefighters see in older people's homes. How can we work to prevent these risks escalating as people become increasingly frail?

Here's what one of the firefighters says:

 I was given a referral for a Home Fire Risk Check (HFRC) and I remember knocking on the door and there was a long delay before it was opened. I wasn’t prepared for what I was met with – the elderly man was on the floor, he greeted me and then asked me to follow him into the living area and he literally dragged himself across the floor using his hands. The man had chronic knee pain and was unable to walk. Obviously this was a big concern for us in relation to fire safety because if there was a fire he would struggle to evacuate safely. However, we don’t just look at fire safety we look at the person’s overall wellbeing and see how we can help them further, in this case we referred him to the NHS Falls Team so he could receive the support he required for his condition.

I don't think I've ever had a referral from the fire service, and I wonder how many sociaa care services have thought about appropriate referral links.

Link to Leek Post and Times article

Thinking therapeutically aids good social work in healthcare

A good article on how a social worker contributes to postoperative care in a big hospital. Referring to an old book of mine which identifies a reflexive therapeutic approach to social work, it implies a useful point that, if you're  going to work with health care colleagues, thinking therapeutically helps communication and reaching shared objectives.

 

Link to Community care article by Paul McKie

WHO fact file on ageing shows that both developing and Western countries face the same challenges

http://www.who.int/features/factfiles/ageing/ageing_facts/en/

Resarch says #ageing does not make us doddery, it is failure to keep active

An interesting article which offers information about scientific research showing that ageing does not make us doddery; it is our failure to keep active.

 

Link to Telegraph article on King's College research 

Authoritative guide on health and safety for care homes

When I worked in a hospice, somebody once queried whether we should be doing carols by candlelight around the patients' rooms - health and safety, you know. The Health and Safety consultant asked a few questions: how many years have you been doing this (answer: about forty)? And: have there ever been any problems (answer: no)? Assessment: no problem there then, provided you carry on being careful.

Such as practical attitude is represented by a new guide. Many people think that HelfnSafety is an red-tape-ish obstruction to creative work in social care, but actually the latest guide out from the Health and Safety Executive in its second gives detailed and sensible practical help. It could be useful to professionals, to anyone who is visiting a resident or checking to see if they or a relative should move in.

You can buy it as a book or download it free.

Link to the HSE guide

A report on dementia and stigma raises important issues, but shows how medical and social services still fail (or refuse) to communicate with each other

I approached this booklet published by a variety of dementia and ageing charities with enthusiasm, because my experience as a social worker is that stigma is a really difficult issue for people who are diagnosed with dementia and their carers. This is shown by a number of interesting and thoughtful essays on service users' and carers' experiences.

I was a bit less enthusiastic about the whole thing, since the papers see dementia and stigma almost entirely from a medical perspective, and the dinner in the House of Lords (funded by the drug company Pfizer) where the report originated contained a lot of neuroscientists and not a lot of people with any kind of social care experience. I know Pfizer has to sell its drugs, and dinners at the House of Lords are very nice and might encourage important people to consider an issue. But most of the attenders were professionals, campaigners and parliamentarians already interested, so it was largely preaching to the converted.

Most of the papers are not worth reading, although there is a useful paper from people in the Bradford dementia group on how different cultural backgrounds may create stigmatising views of dementia. But most of the papers are too brief either to provide thoughtful analysis or document research findings; these are largely opinion pieces, albeit opinion based in some cases on strong professional and academic experience. But it reflects a lack of awareness of the extensive policy and sociological literature on stigma. And a poor appreciation of the complex understanding of culture in our social relations that has been arrived at in the social sciences. Most of this material is extremely naive about culture. Medical and social sciences are still talking past each other on these issues.

And as an example of telling you the obvious derived from high-flown scientific research, a paper on the neurology of stigma tells us that some 'ancient' bits of the brain wiggle (or whatever - this is my word) when faced with things that people are prejudiced about, while bits that are more recent in our evolution have to wiggle harder if they are going to overcome the ingrained prejudice of the older bits with rational thought.You mean you didn't know that ingrained prejudice is hard to overcome using education and rational reflection? And the research he's talking about is about racial prejudice and not dementia, so we don't know if it really applies to the issues the report is about. This is science for the sake of it.

Reacting to how stigma affects people suffering from dementia is a really important issue for social and health care, which needs more than brief reports from a dinner at the House of Lords to tackle.

Link to the site for downloading the report

#Older_people contribute economically through grandparenting and voluntary work, but we shouldn't measure their value by economic growth

Link to article in the Sydney Morning Herald

 

A useful Australian comment questioning the assumption that the growing proportion of older people in many societies is going to be a problem over the next few decades. The article suggests that the figures show that immigration can't solve the problem of keeping the population young enough to keep a Western economy growing. Also, you shouldn't assume that all older people stop working at 65, as many statistics do. They often keep on earning, at least part-time, and trends in pension provision (or more accurately, non-provision) will encourage older people to go on working.

The problem with this view, however, is the assumption that economic growth is the be-all of society; perhaps not. And in any case older people contribute to the economy in all sorts of ways, by spending their pensions, which after all are only deferred income, but perhaps most of all by their contributions in free child care for their grandchildren and by using their time in voluntary work.

Gardening is good for reducing isolation, encouraging physical activity and thus improving mental health

A Bristol charity that encourages gardening activity in care homes has won an award,



Making Bristol a less lonely city - charity recognised for work tackling isolation | Bristol Post

Thought-free stuff disrespectful of older people written in US 'senior living communities' info

 It's really important to think about the effects on readers of things you write in info leaflets, websites and newsletters. Especially when your audience is a devalued group such as older people. What we write may use professional jargon or be thoughtlessly disrespectful. Here are some American examples, but I'm sure people in every country could find their own examples.



16 Crazy Bits of Copy | Senior Housing Forum